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VANGUARD DEFINITION+ MEANING

‘a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas.’‘a position at the forefront of new developments or ideas’

OUR VISION

To be specialty coffee ambassadors, bringing the next level of not only coffee, but beverage excellence and innovation. By utilizing advanced roasting and brewing techniques we will showcase some of the world’s finest coffees and educate customers about traceability, transparency and sustainability in the specialty coffee industry.

HOW WE SOURCE COFFEE

We are passionate about providing the best coffee experience to our customers that we can, but what most consumers aren’t aware of, is that most of the hard work is done at origin, and that is truly where quality is developed. Unfortunately low prices and unstable market conditions, climate change and government instabilities in many growing countries, leads to exploitation of the farmers, who’s only real source of income for their families is their coffee crop.

We like to do things differently. We only buy coffees from sources that we can personally vouch for.

One of our trading partners, works directly with small scale farmers in Colombia, to improve the quality of their coffees. This increase in quality means a direct increase in the price the farmers can get for their coffee. We have purchased 2 sacks this year, direct from a tiny farm in Quindio, Colombia. These 2 sacks are the total production and hard work of one man, Carlos Arturo Arias, and we paid him a premium price for the quality he has produced and hopefully we will be able to buy direct from Carlos again next season.We believe this is the way coffee should be traded; fairly, transparently, and with an emphasis on quality and future sustainability. Its an important aspect of what we do, connecting the stories of our growers with the customers enjoying their morning coffee.

ROASTING

We roast in a modified state of the art German Probat roaster, with digital temperature logging and roast profiling for consistency. This allows us to fine tune each and every aspect of our coffees flavour and repeat the same profile every time. It also utilises modulating burner technology, which uses less fuel, and has excellent heat retention, again allowing for less consumption of fuels.

Although this sounds technical, it is still a hands on process, the computer records all the data, but is still completely manually operated.We roast our coffee in small batches, which take around 10 minutes per batch, depending on the origin.We believe our approach yields a massive difference in the cup flavour by accentuating sweetness, origin character, acidity and body

SUSTAINABILITY&SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

We use only compostable coffee cups, made from plant based materials and recyclable lids.We only use organic milk in all our coffees, this includes soy milk. We believe it tastes better, but is important for the environment.

All our coffees are ethically traded and carry certifications such as:

FairTrade

Organic

UTZ

Rainforest Alliance

In our store, we use local produce whenever possible and our menu and cabinet food selections, change seasonally to reflect what is available in our region.We are also fully committed to Free Range Meats, and will not, under any circumstances stock any product that is not Free range. This includes Eggs (we use Agreeable Eggs) Chicken (Waitoa), Pork (Cressy Farm) etc